Dictionary

philosophical behaviourism en · NOUN

Etymology

From philosophical + behaviourism.

Meanings

1. (UK, uncountable) Synonym of behaviorism.
   • Thus we arrive at analytical or philosophical behaviourism: just as fragility is the disposition to break on dropping […] so desire for beer is the disposition to behave in what we believe is a beer-getting manner, and this is a reflection of our very concept of desire for beer. 1997, David Braddon-Mitchell, Frank Jackson, Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, Blackwell Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 31:
   • Since philosophy became, for many of its practitioners, a study of everyday language, philosophical behaviourism has usually taken the form of analytical behaviourism à la Mace; though it is often presented in jargon like ‘discovering the logic of mental-conduct concepts’. This is a way of saying ‘describing the uses of the words with which we describe a person’s mind’. 1970, Knowledge and Necessity (Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures; 3), London; Glascow: Macmillan; St Martin's Press, →LCCN, page 124:
   • Psychological behaviourism, as we have seen, is a methodological view — a doctrine concerning the way in which one should go about doing psychology. Philosophical behaviourism, in contrast, is an analytic view — a substantive theory of what mental states are. 2007, Matt Carter, Minds and Computers, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 23:

Forms

Synonyms

analytic behaviourism · philosophical behaviourism · behaviorism · behaviorism · analytical behaviourism · logical behaviourism · behaviourism · philosophical behaviorism · analytic behaviorism · analytical behaviorism